It has become a universal truth in the professional sports world, but it still applies most of all to the Yankees:

They aren’t just a ballclub. They’re also a TV show.

With that in mind, with the heavy lifting now over this winter — as general manager Brian Cashman implied Wednesday — with the signing of Masahiro Tanaka, we must assess both their offseason performance through both a baseball prism and an entertainment prism. Not only their WAR, but their Q ratings.

The grades: They’re a far more compelling reality program than they were four months ago.

They’re a modestly better baseball team.

“I know that ownership stepped up and allowed us to add a lot of players to make our fans excited that 2014 will be different than 2013,” Cashman said during a telephone news conference. “How different, we’ll see on the field.”

You know the Yankees’ record-setting, $500-plus million binge this winter emanated from a dual-front crisis:

1) Their 85-77 record, worst since 1992;

2) their plummeting Yankee Stadium attendance (3,542,406 in 2012 to 3,279,589 last year, a drop of 262,817) and declining YES ratings (we don’t have the exact numbers, but trust us: They dropped a lot).

The Yankees weren’t just mediocre last year. They were boring and disliked, too. Their best player Robinson Cano faced silly vitriol from small-minded clientele who overvalued the concept of running hard to first base and undervalued the ability to play in 160 games every season.

Their most beloved player Mariano Rivera crafted a perfect farewell season … which of course saddened the many fans who didn’t want him to go.

Cano ran and took the money in Seattle, solidifying his Bronx unpopularity. On the minus side, Andy Pettitte joined Rivera in retirement, giving the Yankees one fewer icon. And Alex Rodriguez will sit out for a year barring a courtroom miracle, which deprives this saga of its best villain.

Nevertheless, this should be a more captivating and compelling product. Tanaka, who ended his sweepstakes by choosing the Yankees’ seven-year, $155 million offer, is an exciting enigma whose every start should be Must-See TV, at least at the outset.

Jacoby Ellsbury’s athleticism should play well on the senses, assuming he actually can stay on the field. Same goes for Carlos Beltran’s knack for clutch hitting and his health risks.

Brian McCann’s Stadium-friendly swing and fiery personality also bode well for his chances of becoming a lovable character. Maybe the Yankees can pay off an opposing player to style after a home run, just to bring out McCann’s combative side?

Now, no matter how interesting people find this new cast, they won’t tune into a non-competitive entity. This club will be building off a season from which it suffered massive bad luck with injuries and experienced rather good fortune in close games; the Yankees’ 30-16 record in one-run games allowed them to overcome their negative run differential of 650 runs scored and 671 allowed.

If you take the four big names the Yankees have imported and the four they’ve exported, you rank Cano a clear first. After that, it’s murky. Tanaka has the upside to be No. 2, yet he brings the extra layer of guesswork that accompanies all Japanese players. Even if the 25-year-old lives up to his frontline starter potential, you’d peg the Yankees with the third-best starting rotation in the American League East behind Tampa Bay and Boston.

Their outfield is indisputably better than last year, their bullpen indisputably worse and their infield depends on the returns of the recovering Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira.

Now that they’ve blown past their hopes of keeping their payroll under the $189 million luxury-tax threshold, they could step on the gas and sign a free agent such as Grant Balfour or Fernando Rodney to work with David Robertson in the closing role. That appears quite unlikely, though.

“Hopefully we’ve pushed ourselves into the level of conversation that we can now be included back with some of the better teams in the American League,” Cashman said.

Maybe, maybe not. They’re definitely once again one of the more interesting teams in the AL, though. In the Yankees’ universe, that counts for something.

How do you think the Yankees will do this year?

I think somehow, that it's likely that a good % of the "small minded people" you are talking about played some type of organized team sport at some point in their life Mr. Davidoff . Can't say I feel the likelihood is the same for you.

If you had ever played a team sport for a season in anything beyond say , a pee wee league , you'd be able to more closely identify with the effect a lack of effort or hustle by one player on the other 24 players, coaches, the manager, and the 50,000 paying fans sitting there can have.

OK, I grant you that he played 160 games consistently but does getting up to bat 4 or 5 times and handling 4 ground balls and a couple of pop ups per game really seem all that exhausting to you ?.. When you are getting paid $100,000 per baseball game to do it ?

Oh yeah , I forgot about how tough spring training is , where players bask in the warmth check out the babes and play about half of the games.

Perhaps to you , one that only has to come up with a narrow minded column once in while to make a decent living playing 2nd base in the Major Leagues seems trying . But many of us smaller minded individuals take pride in what we have to do and we work hard 40+hours a week for our families and without thousands of fans cheering us on or without making a hundred thousand dollars a day doing it .

So to us fans , the rest of the team, the coaches , the manager and the owner of the team it does mean a lot seeing someone put in that extra little effort that might not equate to getting on base much more often but does equate to showing that the team is bigger than himself.

I'm not saying your being small minded here Mr.Davidoff but maybe it's you that can't understand what always trying your best can do.

The Yanks overall WAR is actually significantly better than before they lost Cano. But it remains to be seen if that translates into wins. I've always had the belief that Chemistry is just as important as talent.

Ok, so Tanaka came to the Yankees because they are the Mecca of baseball. It absolutely nothing to do with150 million! These useless comparisons comparing position by position fail to take into account, Cano is gone with his 340 average, below average defense and dogging it around the bases.

Jeter is a senior citizen and will need a walker to run the bases, and has anybody noticed how is production has dropped since he is no longer hitting in front of two guys with hall of fame stats?. He has most benefiited from the people hitting behind him. Below average shortstop, with what Francessa would call, except in his case, compiler numbers. Tex will spend 60 games on the DL.

What does that leave you with? No Mariano, an overrated pitching staff, not a great lineup.

Can someone remind Mr. Davidoff, that the Yankees (in general) were on the disabled list last season? How in the world can he being to make comparison between the 2014 squad to the 2013 "fill-in" squad?

Is Tex not better than Overbay? Is Jeter not better Jayson Nix? Is Kelly Johnson not better than Nunoz? Is McCann not better than Stewert and Romine? Is Ellsbury not better than Ichiro? As for the bullpen, D-Rob may not be at Mo's level, but no one is. If D-Rob can pitch to the level of (at least) the average closer, than he will have done his job.

Very, very poor analysis by Ken Davidoff. (He and Joel Sherman must be taking notes.)

Discussing his decision to sign with the Yankees, Masahiro Tanaka expressed excitement with joining the game's most historically prominent club, the Associated Press reports (via the New York Times; video available via MLB.com). "They gave me the highest evaluation and are a world famous team," said Tanaka, who said his goal is to win a World Series in pinstripes.

I guess it doesn't matter how much they improved at the weakest positions to Davidoff. Last season, 7,8 and 9 in the lineup, and sometimes 6, were automatic outs. Now, Johnson/Nunez are the weakest hitters in the lineup. If Tanaka is anywhere near what most people think (we don't count anonymous scouts from teams that lost out in the bidding), and Robertson does what he is capable of, they are better than the Red Sox.

I'm not impressed watching film of this guy. Not much of a fastball. Easy to pick the ball up on his delivery. Very good movement on his … not sure what the pitch is, but he had a lot of the Japanese players swinging at it way out of the strike zone.

At first it will fool a lot of MLB hitters, but eventually they'll figure it out, become disciplined with it and he won't be nearly as effective.

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The Post and Daily News are equal opportunity employers; we'll hire anyone who is stupid.

"Their best player Robinson Cano faced silly vitriol from small-minded clientele who overvalued the concept of running hard to first base and undervalued the ability to play in 160 games every season." You're saying there's a conflict between running hard to first base and playing 160 games? Really? You can't do both?!?

At thirty Derek Jeter played every day and ran out everything. At forty coming back from injury Jeter was still running out everything and had to be told to stop. Now that he has his big contract Cano can stay in the batters box the seven out of ten times he doesn't get a clean hit. BTW that will be a great example for all Seattle's young players in how to play the game. Davidson obviously never played anything. Even T ball kids are taught to run out everything.

TOO MANY QUESTION MARKS! I despise Cashman. The most overrated GM in baseball. THE OUTFIELD ISN'T REALLY THAT GREAT. Why does Ellsbury have a 153 million dollar seven year contract that will never be fulfilled? Crazy. THE INFIELD IS TERRIBLE. Texeira has a glove but he's a groundout machine. The second and third basemen are journymen. And D.J. is forty years old! CASHMAN IS A TERRIBLE GM.

@Bob Nunemaker Correct. On paper, they're about 10 games better than their true level (as compared to their Pythagorean record from last year), and therefore, about 4 games better than their actual record from last year. But the other part of what you said is also correct. They still have to prove it on the field.

As for the chemistry, I like McCann's grit, and Beltran's ability in the clutch. Tanaka supposedly has a great mental makeup as well. Ellsbury's fine if he can avoid a season-destroying collision. But we'll all have to watch the games and see.

"Jeter is a senior citizen and will need a walker to run the bases, and has anybody noticed how is production has dropped since he is no longer hitting in front of two guys with hall of fame stats?" If you mean last year, he was injured the whole season. If you mean 2012, he had a very good season, batting .316, which was above his lifetime average. Now, he may never be the same, but that's not what you wrote.

@opaque/971bbbb8-31a9-11e3-ba92-000f20980440 Wait! Jeter LED THE MAJORS in hits the season before getting hurt, but he's washed up? His stats are a feature of hitting 1-2 in the order and having to bring in the 7-9 batters from the bases. Of course he won't have many RBI's. Jeter will return with 180 hits this year and clutch performances as always. When will you haters realize you are watching a HOF'er that you later will say, "damn, I should have appreciated him more."

@Jackie C. Actually, he has two fastballs, a four-seamer and a two-seamer. You were probably looking at the four-seamer. If the major leagues hit it, he'll switch to the two-seamer more, as AJ Burnett did his two years in Pittsburgh. But it may take him some time to concede what's happening and make the adjustment.

@Bronxboy Derek Jeter NEVER played 160 in any season even if you include the playoffs. Matsui did, Bernie did, Cano always did. Nobody has ever averaged the 160 per season that Cano has. You guys have opinions but they don't match the facts. Careful that you don't start believing your own BS. It looks like that warning is too late for a few of you experts. As Casey Said "You can look it up."

@jerry kostello Or just realizes that running out routine ground balls has such an infinitesimally small effect on a team's outcomes so has to be enormously outweighed by all of Cano's positive attributes.

@Bob Nunemaker@opaque/971bbbb8-31a9-11e3-ba92-000f20980440 Jeter is a compiler on a team full of all-stars in his entire career.other than leading the majors in hits that ONE season,he has never led in any other category. EVER! never won an MVP either. yet,he'll be a sure-fire 1st ballot HOFer?

@dynks@tony barreto Plus a 4 year opt out (which Stein caved on), $100,000 housing allowance, $35,000 moving allowance (what's he going to bring?), 4 first class air tix NY to Japan per year, and $85,000/ year for a translator on top of that big pile of money. All in Uncle Sam's world famous currency. Accepted everywhere!